Cobb takes oath as Alabama's first female chief justice

Published: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 6:01 a.m.

Last Modified: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 at 11:00 p.m.

MONTGOMERY - Sue Bell Cobb took the oath of office Tuesday as Alabama's first female chief justice and only the sixth woman to serve on the state's highest court in its 188-year history.

The Alabama milestone is part of a trend across the South, where women have been gaining political power in recent decades with elections to offices of governor and U.S. senator.

With her investiture, Cobb also became the only Democrat on the nine-member Supreme Court and the only one among 19 appeals court judges in Alabama.

At a ceremony before about 500 people in a Montgomery hotel ballroom, she promised to make reducing prison overcrowding, improving funding for courts and changing the way judges are elected her top priorities as chief justice.

"I hope the courts will become known for fixing people rather than for filling prisons," Cobb said after being administered the oath by former Gov. John Patterson, who is also a retired state appellate judge.

Merle Black, a political scientist at Emory University in Atlanta, said Cobb is one of a number of women slowly gaining political power across the South. In some ways, he said, Alabama is catching up. He noted that Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears was just elected to a second term and that Texas elected Ann Richards as governor in 1990.

Including Cobb, there are now three women on the Alabama Supreme Court - one-third of the nine members - and six female appellate court judges, a contrast to the more than 130 years when there were no women on the appellate courts. Alabama's first female appellate court judge was Annie Lola Price, appointed in 1951 to what was then the Court of Appeals and serving in an era when women were not allowed to serve on juries. Janie Shores was elected Alabama's first female Supreme Court justice in 1974.

<p>MONTGOMERY - Sue Bell Cobb took the oath of office Tuesday as Alabama's first female chief justice and only the sixth woman to serve on the state's highest court in its 188-year history.</p><p>The Alabama milestone is part of a trend across the South, where women have been gaining political power in recent decades with elections to offices of governor and U.S. senator.</p><p>With her investiture, Cobb also became the only Democrat on the nine-member Supreme Court and the only one among 19 appeals court judges in Alabama.</p><p>At a ceremony before about 500 people in a Montgomery hotel ballroom, she promised to make reducing prison overcrowding, improving funding for courts and changing the way judges are elected her top priorities as chief justice.</p><p>"I hope the courts will become known for fixing people rather than for filling prisons," Cobb said after being administered the oath by former Gov. John Patterson, who is also a retired state appellate judge.</p><p>Merle Black, a political scientist at Emory University in Atlanta, said Cobb is one of a number of women slowly gaining political power across the South. In some ways, he said, Alabama is catching up. He noted that Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears was just elected to a second term and that Texas elected Ann Richards as governor in 1990.</p><p>Including Cobb, there are now three women on the Alabama Supreme Court - one-third of the nine members - and six female appellate court judges, a contrast to the more than 130 years when there were no women on the appellate courts. Alabama's first female appellate court judge was Annie Lola Price, appointed in 1951 to what was then the Court of Appeals and serving in an era when women were not allowed to serve on juries. Janie Shores was elected Alabama's first female Supreme Court justice in 1974.</p><p>Also sworn in during Tuesday's ceremony were Supreme Court justices Glenn Murdock, Champ Lyons Jr., Thomas Woodall and Lyn Stuart; Court of Criminal Appeals judges Samuel Henry Welch, Greg Shaw and Kelli Wise; and Court of Civil Appeals Court judges Terri Willingham Thomas, Terry Moore and Craig Pittman.</p>